Guava Snow Egg

At Sydney’s acclaimed Quay restaurant, Peter Gilmore’s graceful, harmonious, nature - based cuisine fights for attention with the beautiful harbour views – and still wins hands-down, as every mouthful reveals layer upon layer of flavour. Look, learn and, best of all, taste this truly great chef’s beautifully balanced food, with its almost Asian respect for texture.

Method

For this recipe you will need a 6cm diameter half hemisphere sili con mould sheet.

2.

Whisk the egg whites in a machine until they form soft peaks and slowly add the sugar.

3.

Once the meringue forms firm peaks and the sugar has dissolved place the meringue into 16 half hemisphere moulds.

4.

Cook the meringue in a bain marie large enough to hold the silicon mat in a pre-heated 120°C oven for approximately 15 minutes. Allow to cool then unmould the half hemispheres and store in the fridge on a silicon paper lined tray until needed.

Maltose Tuilles:

1.

Heat the sugar and maltose together until it reaches hard crack stage (until it caramelises). Add the flaked almonds and immediately pour the mixture onto a silicon mat, allow to cool completely.

2.

Process the hard caramel in a food processor to form a fine powder. Next sieve the praline mixture in a course sieve onto a silicon mat in a fine layer.

3.

Melt this mixture in a moderate oven until it forms a clear liquid paste.

4.

Remove from the oven and before the praline becomes too hard cut into a 15cm diameter circle using a metal circle cutter. When each circle is hard store between silicon paper in an air tight container.

Guava Puree:

1.

Combine the sugar, water and scraped vanilla bean in a pot and bring to the boil. Lower the heat to a gentle simmer, add the guava flesh and simmer for 10 minutes.

2.

Take off the heat, remove the vanilla pods, drain the flesh from the liquid, place the flesh in a blender and add just enough of the cooking liquid to process into a thick guava puree.

3.

Pass the puree through a fine sieve and set aside in the fridge until needed.

Guava Granita:

1.

Roughly dice the guavas and strawberries.

2.

Combine the sugar and water in a large saucepan, bring to the boil then lower the heat to a slow simmer. Add the diced fruit and gently simmer for ten minutes.

3.

Take off the heat and allow to infuse at room temperature for two hours.

4.

Pass the liquid through a muslin cloth and discard the solids.

5.

Pour the guava syrup into a ceramic or stainless steel container to a depth of 5cm. Place in the freezer for a period of no less than 12 hours.

6.

Every two to three hours remove from the freezer and scrape with a fork to form the granita crystals.

Custard Apple Ice Cream:

1.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together, bring the milk to the boil and pour on to the egg yolk sugar mixture while whisking.

2.

Pour the mixture into a stainless steel bowl and cook out while whisking over a pot of simmering water (approximately ten minutes). Allow the sabayon to cool over ice.

3.

Meanwhile using extremely ripe custard apples scoop the flesh of approximately one large custard apple into a double muslin lined chinois. Gather the muslin cloth at the top and squeeze the ripe custard apple flesh tightly to obtain a clear juice.

4.

When you have 300ml of clear juice whisk it into the sabayon with the 100ml of single cream. Place the mixture into an ice cream machine and churn until ready. Place the ice cream in a container in the freezer until needed.

Vanilla Custard Base:

1.

Heat the cream and the two split and scraped vanilla beans together until it just begins to boil then remove from the heat.

2.

Next whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together in a stainless steel bowl. While whisking the eggs slowly pour on the hot vanilla cream. Mix well and remove the vanilla pods.

3.

Pour this mixture into four large dariole moulds to a depth of 5cm, place the dariole moulds into a tray of water to form a water bath. Place the water bath into a pre-heated 150C oven and cook the custard as you would a crème brulee for approximately 25 minutes until the custard is just set.

4.

Remove the custards from the bain marie and place them in the fridge for approximately five to six hours until they are fully chilled and set.

Vanilla cream:

1.

Whisk the cream and custard together to form soft peaks.

Guava Fool Method:

1.

Place the guava puree in a small bowl and fold through the vanilla cream gently to form a rippled effect. Do this just before you are ready to assemble the dessert.

To assemble:

1.

Take eight of the half hemisphere poached meringues. Using a teaspoon remove a small scoop from the centre of each half hemisphere being careful not to break through the outer edge.

2.

Then place a small scoop of custard apple ice cream inside the hole you have just made. Scoop a small hole in the rest of the hemispheres and invert over the ice cream filled meringues to form a complete sphere.

3.

Place a maltose biscuit on top of each sphere and using a gentle blow torch melt the biscuit over the sphere. Dust all the spheres with icing sugar.

4.

Next add a generous spoonful of the guava fool in the bottom of each serving glass. Top the fool with the guava granita then place the custard apple ice cream poached meringue spheres on top of the granita and serve.